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I recently spoke with a customer service agent on the phone with DirecTV and I am pleased to announce that he resolved my issue within less than five minutes. His name was Jason (LKC0446) and the issue that I was having, actually had just started happening about ten minutes before I got on the phone with him. I have not experienced a searching for satellite signal issue on this particular system, except for the whole *heavy rain* issue. Tonight, I was flipping through some channels looking for a good movie to watch. I happened to flip to Cinemax and got the dreaded "771 - Searching For Satellite Signal" error code with my receiver ID and card number. Exasperated, I checked a few other channels. Some would come in and some would display the same *hated* error message. I went through viewing my signal strength and there I realized that I was getting 0s for signal strength on my even transponders for 101, but great signal strength on my odd transponders; I also was not receiving any signal from 110 and also getting 0s on the even transponders for the 119, but still strong signal on the odd transponders. When I spoke with Jason, he had me unplug the satellite in cable from the back of the receiver, unplug the receiver power cord for about 30 seconds, and press and hold the power button on the front panel of the receiver for about 15 seconds to dispel any static electricity that may have built up in the receiver. After doing this, he advised me that my satellite strength should even back out, and it did. That is my praise for Jason. At the time, I did not think to ask him some meaningful questions that I had about my installation with DirecTV.

I live in Florida and I know my local channels come from the 119 satellite. I had an installer by the name of Glenn come out, but I don't know which sub-contracting company he came from. I'm thinking it was Mastec, because as far as I was aware Mastec services our area. When he came out to install the DirecTV, he told me that he would have to charge me to install the dish (when there is already a pole mount set up in two different places in my apartment complex and in both places there was already a DirecTV dish). I told him that I would not pay this charge and that he should be able to get perfect satellite signal from the pole mount in the back of my apartment, but that the dish might need to be replaced, because from the looks of it - one of the LNBs is cracked. The technician must have been a little perturbed with me because I wasn't going to bend over and let him take money out of me like that, because he did not replace the dish. He refused to bury the cable, which I'm not too worried about -- I went out there after he left and buried it myself, I know that was actually grounds for a custom charge, had he actually went through with it. My dish is actually filthy, it has a green tint to it from where it is actually shaded by some heavy foliage - however, it does have a clear shot to the southern sky, so no problems there. There is at least an additional 10' of cabling that I do not need - it is all bunched up at the base of the pole. Another problem that I have is that the LNB is getting cracked worse and worse, and I've started to notice a heavy rain fade issue - if it even feels like it's going to rain, I start getting pixelization. Now - my question is -- I am under a 90 day warranty, but should I get a technician out to my home? If so - what should I have him do? I only have one receiver, I don't have a multiswitch, and honestly - I don't even know if my dish is grounded. I got so exasperated with the technician that I just let him do his own thing -- even though he told me that he failed his SBCA certifications and was allowed to work for a year, until he was able to afford to take the certifications again. What should I do?

Call and have a tech come back out. I assume that you have a regular residential account with DirecTV and are not part of a MDU account. The dish that he used, was that just one that was there from a previous occupant of your apartment or one that other people would share with you?

If you do have a regular residential account, let them know that the installer did not install an new dish and that they used one that appears to be damaged. That should be an easy fix for whoever comes out. Also, have the tech that comes out verify that the dish is grounded.

All right. I have a technician scheduled for 3/7 between 8 a.m. and 12 p.m. And if he's anything like the last technician (or is the last technician), it's not going to be that great. Thank you for your advice, though!

I have never had much luck with the so-called "professional technicians" contracted by DirecTV. Fortunately, I've managed to avoid them except for swapping out receivers (when I had no other option). They didn't even do that very well and after their visit I always had to phone a CSR to get my account corrected. One signed me up for the "protection plan" without my permission!!

I feel sorry for all the folks who aren't knowledgeable enough to install/maintain their own DirecTV system and have to deal with these people.

It's not that I'm not knowledgeable enough to maintain the system, I just don't have the equipment to patch the mistakes that he made when he installed the system.

The second technician came out and said that the system was not grounded, replaced the weather fittings (because the other guy left the previous ones in place and they were falling apart), he cut out the excess cabling, realigned the dish, and replaced the LNBs. The inside of the other LNB was absolutely disgusting!

Now the signal strength that I'm getting is absolutely great. I've got all 90+, with the obvious occasional 0s. Now I just have to wait for a hint of rain, which in Florida... I could be waiting until summer, or I could get it ten minutes from now.

Great to hear everything turned out well. It definitely seems like you got a tech the first time around that absolutely doesn't want to do his job. It sounds like the second guy did a good job. Did the second tech make any comments about the job the first guy did?

He didn't really say anything negative about the previous technician, except that he did not replace any of the weather fittings like he was supposed to have done on initial installation. Apparently my fiancee knew the second technician from work, from before when the technician wasn't doing installer work.